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Values an Heritage in "Everyday Use"
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” there are many underlying themes that the reader can examine. Walker uses values and heritage as an essential message and theme. Through the use of the main characters, Walker explains her outlook as the characters discuss their heritage. One will find that the main characters have very different views on their heritage and what exactly is valuable.
The reader is first introduced to the lifestyle of the narrator and her daughter, Maggie. The narrator explains that her surroundings and her living area are comfortable. “A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room” (65). The yard is not one of luscious green grass, but one of “hard clay…swept clean as a floor” (65).
As the reader continues to examine the story, the lifestyle of the narrator and her family becomes recognized. They are not a wealthy family. The narrator is a “large, big boned women” who tends to life on her farm and her tin roof home. (65). Even though the narrator and Maggie may not be among the best conditions, they appreciate what they have and consider it comfortable.
Dee, the narrator’s educated daughter, doesn’t appreciate her family’s lifestyle. The narrator believes that Dee doesn’t value the house or their lifestyle in the same manner. The narrator is not ashamed that “there are no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides” or that “rawhide hold[s] the shutters up on the outside (66-67). Yet Dee reveals her higher, sophisticated value of their home in a letter she wrote while away at college. “She wrote me once that no matter where we ‘chose’ to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends” (67).
Dee’s value of her birth name is also disregarded. She chooses to change her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo and perceives her birth name as one given to her by white men. Dee states, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (68). The narrator views it differently and believes that the name is just a part of their heritage. The narrator says, “You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie” (68).
The matter of Dee's name is a good example of the difference in values. Evidently, Dee has chosen her new name, Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, to express unity with her African ancestors and to snub the oppression implied by accepting American names given to black slaves. To her mother, the name, Dee, is a valuable symbol of family unity and heritage. She could have probably traced that family name “back beyond the Civil war through the branches” (68). The name is valuable to the narrator because it represents a long heritage of beloved family members.
Dee's attitude toward the quilts and other household items are very much different than [next page]